Paul Reynaud

Paul Reynaud (15 October 1878-21 September 1966) was Prime Minister of France from 21 March to 16 June 1940, succeeding Edouard Daladier and preceding Philippe Petain.

Biography
Paul Reynaud was born in Barcelonnette, France in 1878. A wealthy lawyer, he was a parliamentary deputy for the National Bloc from 1919 to 1924, then the Democratic Republican Alliance from 1928 to 1940, and the Independent Radicals from 1946 to 1962. He held various ministries from 1930 onwards and distinguished himself especially as Minsiter of Finance from 1938 to 1940, when he engineered an economic recovery through undoing much of the social legislation of the Popular Front government. He opposed Edouard Daladier's policy of appeasement, and took over from him to become the last Prime Minister of the French Third Republic in March 1940. In May he asked the President, Albert Lebrun, for the appointment of Marshal Philippe Petain as Deputy Prime Minister. After fleeing to Bordeaux he was forced to resign on 16 June 1940. He was imprisoned by the Vichy government, tried at Riom, and spent the last years of the war in German concentration camps. In 1948, he was briefly Minister of Finance again, and in 1953-1954 Deputy Prime Minister. In 1958 he chaired the constitutional committee which wrote the constitution of the Fifth Republic. However, he became opposed to the presidential system, as well as to Charles de Gaulle's policies on Europe and the force de frappe.